Bathurst ranks highly

The Regional Australia Institute, a respected and independent research body, recently completed Australia’s first “Competitiveness Index” study which ranks LGAs against ten key themes to track performance, challenges and growth potential. This national study incorporated all 563 Local Government Areas.

One of the indicators of the study is “Local Economic Development Support”, which was assessed based upon:

Analysis of local government websites (to assess projects and initiatives that support local economic development); and

Systematic assessment of the availability of business information and pro-business policies.

Bathurst has ranked 15thout of 563 LGAs for “Local Economic Development Support” and 4thin New South Wales. Neighbouring LGAs have achieved the following national ranking:

Orange – 330

Oberon – 143

Lithgow – 204

Blayney – 160

Cabonne – 423

Cowra – 156

This result places Bathurst as a leader in the Central West, NSW and nationally in the provision of support for local economic development and also ranks Bathurst as the leading Evocity for this key indicator.